Cool, Colourful and All Kinds of Fun: Sinead & Stephen

We're getting 2018 off to a colourful start with our first real wedding of the year, Sinead & Stephen's wildly fun barn wedding at Segrave House. This cool couple doused their day in personal touches and DIY details, with unique style, punchy decor and lots of memorable experiences for their guests (an alpaca, an opera singer, and a black cat wedding cake, for starters). With a ceremony in the woods and a raucous 80s dance party reception, this entire day, captured beautifully by Katie Farrell Photography, is already brightening up our January.

Sinead & Stephen met in something of an iconic spot in Dublin - the coat queue in Whelan’s. “Myself and Stephen’s love story began the way all great Irish love stories begin - at the less respectable end of a night in the pub. He smiled at me and we began chatting, we talked all the way down the stairs, then came to the end and said our goodbyes.”

But that wasn’t it for Sinead & Stephen, as the bride tells us, “He returned to his friend, Colm, and I to my cousin Donna. On telling Donna that I met a nice guy in the coat queue, she sent me back in search of a phone number (these were the days before Tinder). I dutifully headed back only to meet him on his way back to find me with the same idea in mind. Numbers were swapped and I told him if nothing else you have a new friend - though I did not invite him to go to the chippers with us, the sight of a lady tucking into a double hamburger with extra cheese could quickly put an end to even the most promising of new romances!” I think Stephen would have been endeared by that sight myself!

Sinead says that in the ensuing courtship, the couple learned they had a lot in common, “Not least that we had a shared interest in Star Trek the Next Generation, and had both at some point in our lives broken our wrist by falling over whist holding money. It was clear we were made for each other. Eight years later, we are still going strong, and have survived trekking across South America, a 15 day France to Italy road trip in a Ford Focus, and multiple trips to Cavan to Stephen’s home town, marriage should be a piece of cake compared to that!”

Sinead tells us about how Stephen’s proposal brought them back to an early date spot, “There were many things that attracted me to Stephen, his flowing locks, his manly stubble, and the fact that he had a car. This opened dating opportunities I had never experienced in my time in Dublin, having only dated the carless. For our third date, Stephen suggested we go to Howth for a walk. I was very impressed with this. He must have remembered, because six years later he suggested we go back up there for old times sake.”

A tough climb up Howth Head turned into a pretty special moment, “We were walking through what was becoming rougher and rougher terrane, when I, growing weary of this bumpier than I remembered trip down memory lane, said I don’t think we need to go any further. Stephen said he needed to tie his shoe laces, when he was down there longer than was normal I turned around and he was on one knee, he said we might have to go a little bit further. So I said yes and here we are!”

The couple describe their wedding as a crazy craic-filled unforgettable day, “The vibe of the day was really laid back and full of laughter, everyone young and old got on board with the days shenanigans. We have never had, and probably will never again have so much fun in a 24 hour period. To have all of your favourite people in the world in one place to celebrate with you is something really special.”

Sinead & Stephen’s celebrations started with a beautiful ceremony in the woods, “We were thankfully very lucky with the weather, the only rain shower of the day happened as guests were leaving the ceremony for the shelter of the barn. The sun then returned and stayed out for the rest of the evening. Pauly and Zeto played music at every interval and kept the party going while we had our photos taken at a nearby beach. The pig on a spit barbecue style dinner was amazing and everyone seemed to be having a great time.”

The bride and groom say their priority was to create a unique and memorable day for their guests, “Weddings can be very formulaic and it can be easier to pick the established route, we worked hard to follow our own path with it. We wanted everyone to have an amazing time, and found that when you lay the groundwork for an unusual day, the guests bring their own layer of entertainment to the proceedings! Probably the biggest compliment we received from one of our guests was ‘you never knew what was going to happen next’.” That’s our kind of party!

Sinead & Stephen’s advice to other would-be wedding planners? You do you! “Your wedding is the best party you will ever throw, have fun with it and do it on your own terms. We had a worry that the alternative nature of our wedding wouldn’t be to everyone's taste, but we have heard back from so many people about how much they enjoyed it the break from tradition.”

After the madness of their big day, the couple decided to opt for something relaxing for their post-wedding getaway, “Exhausted from the wedding planning, we made a decision to go on a mini-moon to Cadaques in Spain, somewhere we have been before and loved. We had a chill-filled 10 days there and it was exactly what was needed. We plan to do something more exciting next year, we haven't agreed on what yet…”

Sinead & Stephen - along with some helpers - embarked on lots of DIY projects but say it was worth the effort, “The venue would have been good to go as it was, we had a few ideas that we thought could add to the experience. We decided the over all colour scheme of the wedding should be multi-colored, we thought this would work really well with the wooden finishings of the venue.

The table plan was a particularly cool personal touch, “Earlier in the year, I had a portrait of myself, Stephen and our cat Trigger painted as a surprise for Stephen for his birthday, with plans to use it as the centre piece of our table plan. We bought a large panel of chipboard (the transport of which may have caused a small argument in the middle of B&Q...), and mounted the portrait in the centre of it. We then painted the words ‘Please be Seated’ above it, and placed 15 miniature wooden clipboards (made by Stephen) either side holding the listing for each table.”

The couple went all out with their colourful decorations, “We bought pretty much all of the coloured candles that Tiger had, and my Dad made bog oak candle holders that ended up being a big hit! We made different coloured paper bags for each table number, and bought 140 plastic animals, which we sawed slits in, then painted in a range of bright colours which held place cards for each person, matching the person to the animal was fun! One of the smaller touches that made a big difference were coloured ribbons that we tied to the back of the alter in the woods, it added a lovely pop of colour and looks great in the photos.”

Even the flowers were a DIY endeavour, as Sinead explains, “My mother did an incredible job on all of the flowers, which were of course multicolored! The flowers themselves were bought from a mixture of places, ’A Room in Bloom’ in Athlone, ‘McEvoy Nurseries’ in Drogheda and Lidl - and my parents were spotted picking ferns from a hedge at the venue the morning of. Once we had them all, my mother, Marie McAleer, then did the hard work of arranging them.”

For these two, it was the people behind Segrave that made it the wedding venue they were looking for, “In short, John and Eugene, along with their troop of miniature donkeys, huskies, alpacas and their cat Percy. I love animals so when I saw their impressive collection my head couldn’t be turned. We both loved the vibe of the place and knew straight away that John and Eugene were our kind of people!”

The venue changed a lot between their initial visit and their big day, “At the time of seeing the venue, they hadn’t built the insanely beautiful American style barn, but plans were afoot. We couldn’t believe it when we returned a year and a half later to see what they had done with the place! The venue and its surroundings are stunning, and the guys are amazing, unbelievably helpful, and so attentive to the older guests making sure they had everything they needed for the whole day. They also let us run riot with the decor, some of which involved stapling things to the walls of the barn, so they couldn’t have been more accommodating!” Not all venues are so flexible when it comes to decor - what a find!

The wedding cake was a homage to a special someone, “As our cat Trigger could not be present due to his being a flight risk, we (I...) decided to have him immortalised in biscuit cake. Scrummy Mummy cakes did an incredible job of baking a cake version of Trigger - that I then couldn't cut for obvious reasons that I didn’t think through!”

The couple and their guests had a fun musical surprise to kick off the evening’s festivities, “Eugene, the second of the venues amazing proprietors, also an opera singer by day, surprised us by doing an Italian singing chef routine so impressive that my grandmother commented on how good his English was! He brought the house down, and got everyone in the mood for dancing. I had gotten a smoke machine to surprise Stephen with for our first dance, so we danced in a cloud of smoke to John Grant’s ‘Outer Space’, after which 80s tribute band Delorean took to the stage and made us all feel like we were in the Prom scene at the end of Footloose.”

The couple even made a special backdrop for their band, “Our band were an 80s tribute band, so we decided to make them a fitting backdrop comprising of gold lame strips, three foot tall handmade glittery letters, and giant red hearts inspired by The Cure’s ‘Friday I’m in Love’ music video.” Doesn't it look like an old-school prom?

What a start to the year - thanks so much to Sinead & Stephen for sharing their day with us, and of course to Katie Farrell Photography for capturing all the fun.